Real Truths Of Recruiting:
One of our main goals is to educate you about the real truths of the college football recruiting game.
That is not always easy as communication technology is improving and changing so rapidly that even the NCAA is confused and having trouble keeping up.
Coaching contact rules are changing as this new technology impacts the way we communicate with each other. While you can still call and receive calls from coaches, up to 75% of communication between athletes and coaches is carried on via Facebook’s inbox and Twitter’s instant messaging.
What Does Proactive Mean?
Every year a few talented top level Sophomores will be actively recruited by the coaches, however, most of you will have to be PROACTIVE in your recruiting process. In practical terms, what does proactive mean?
You will have to MARKET YOURSELF to the coaches and you and your parents will have to do all the legwork in getting them to notice your talents.
EIGHT THINGS TO DO THIS MONTH TO STAY AHEAD OF YOUR COMPETITION:
If you haven’t already, get a recruiting notebook. Get one that has pockets and start now to keep track of every contact you have with any college coach. Keep track of camp invites, questionnaires, phone calls… Keep track of everything! When things start to heat up recruiting wise, you will be glad you have all this information at your finger tips.
Talk with your parents about college locations, majors and colleges you are interested in.
Start gathering information about and researching colleges academically, socially and athletically. Try to visualize yourself on campus and playing for the schools on your wish list. Also think what it would be like if you were only a student at each of these schools.
Think long term! Remember that some coaches are only interested in winning. Your primary focus should be on getting a college education and getting it paid for. Playing football should be secondary to education. For example, think about what you would like to be doing the next 40 years instead of the next couple of years.
Talk about colleges that would be a good fit for you athletically and academically. Have one or two Div. I dream schools but look at ALL other levels too.
Be Ready! There is a very good chance that you still haven’t seen much playing time yet, but there is also an excellent chance that you could be called up to replace an injured player or just to see how you do in a real game. Make every play and practice session count. If you are perceived as lazy, do you really thing you will be given many chances to play?
Develop a thick skin! This is the year that your coach is really putting you and your talents to the test to see if he wants to bring you up next year. Work on any criticism that he gives you and practice to improve in that area.
Remember, stats are accumulating! Many college coaches like to see improvement from year to year. Try to improve your performance with every game. Very few Sophomores have impressive stats; strive to be one of them.
THINGS FOR SOPHOMORES TO START THINKING ABOUT:
- Keep in mind that college coaches EXPECT to be contacted by you, but they do not want to hear from you until you have significant varsity stats. For the most part they do not have the recruiting budget to travel around the country and actually see you compete. Instead they use stats, questionnaires, letters or emails of introduction, recruiting profiles, and profile videos and full game tapes.
- Obviously, you think you are a collegiate level athlete or you wouldn’t be one of our subscribers, but still it is easy to procrastinate. Do not wait until your senior year to begin your college athletic scholarship search. Consider every semester a building block in your athletic scholarship quest.
- Do not depend on your high school coach to use his influence to get you admitted into a college. All colleges have minimum academic requirements and poor grades will turn a college coach’s attention away from you quicker than a red hot bullet. When you are researching possible college football programs, note what the minimum academic requirement is and keep your GPA and ACT/SAT scores high enough to be admitted. As we’ve said, at this point, every single semester counts.
- If your grades are less than desirable, it is not too late to adjust your study habits and significantly improve your grades and scores.
- Speak with athletes that have already been recruited at the schools where you would like to play. Ask them about their recruiting process. This will give you a more realistic perspective of how it really works.
- Don’t think that a football camp invite means that you are being recruited. Because college coaches make a good supplemental income from the camps they put on, they tend to send out these camp invites to every football player in the area. Remember just because you got a camp invite, DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE BEING RECRUITED, but it could mean that the coach would like to see you play.
- Don’t believe everything the college coaches tell you during the recruiting process. The truth is that the coaches tend to recruit more potential recruits than they actually have slots for. They over-recruit because they know that not every athlete they talk to will choose their school and they also know that some of the recruits they want will choose other schools.
- Before narrowing down the list of schools where you would like to attend, talk to friends, fans, and your current high school coach about the college football coaches at different schools. Word tends to get around about a less than honest coach. Also talk with the present athletes on his team.
Next month we will talk about the three ways you can be offered scholarship as a Sophomore.
Add these tips to your financial aid tips file. Remember, there’s plenty of money out there that has to go to someone. It may as well be you.
FINANCIAL AID TIPS:
Often overlooked, but possible sources: House of Worship (Churches, Synagogues and Temples). This is one area where an early inquiry is recommended due to the small number of grants and scholarships and large numbers of applicants.
Never give up on scholarships.
You don’t have to be a stellar student to land a big scholarship. Unless it’s strictly an academic scholarship, your grades don’t really matter. As long as your grades make the cutoff (for admission in to a specific college), often a 2.75 GPS or higher, you have as good a chance as any applicant of bagging a scholarship.
The internet is a great way to get started. Check out individual college web sites, and search for scholarship sources on such sites at FastWeb, CollegeBoard.com and CollegeAnswer. Avoid sites that charge you to search for scholarships.
Don’t overlook local sources of scholarships. Community-based awards may be smaller, but they’re also easier to win.
There’s millions of dollars in scholarships at the local, community level. Students should look to organizations such as parent’s employers, YMCA, Kiwanis Club and area businesses.
Grades? How are they?
Be sure to keep your grades up! Why do we hammer you to keep your grades up? The college coaches will be even more interested in you for an athletic scholarship if you have the ability to get an academic scholarship, and having good grades drastically increases your chances for an academic scholarship.
This is the time to check out Advanced Placement Credit courses at your high school. These courses are college level courses offered at high school. In order to receive college credit for the course taken, students must score well on the end of course test. By taking and doing well in AP courses in high school, you may find yourself with quite a few college credits before you even get to college.
Are you involved in extracurricular activities? Community service? Get involved in extracurricular and community activities. College admissions officials weigh the contributions that students will make to the college community.
Things To Do This Month:
Take the PSAT (Preliminary SAT)/ NMSQT (National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test) for practice. Check with your school counselor to find out about registration. Some states may even pay for the test. On your PSAT form, be sure to mark the box requesting information from colleges to be sent to your home address. By requesting this information you will be able to learn about many colleges, including some you might not have known about.
The PSAT is formatted just like the actual SAT. It contains the standard reading, mathematics and writing sections that are also on the SAT, but the number of questions required and the amount of time needed to finish the exam is considerably less.
The level of difficulty parallels the SAT and can give you an accurate picture of how you would score on the real test if you were to take it at this moment. You can compare your test-run score to SAT I scores achieved by students at colleges on your wish list. One thing missing from the PSAT is the essay section. While you will be tested on your writing skills by means of multiple choice questions, the essay portion is currently on the SAT only.
If your scores are low, compared to college averages, you should refer to our Test Taking Tips located in the Membership Resource Section.
Another resource is the College Board’s “My College QuickStart”. If you use your access code from your PSAT to sign in, you can get a personalized planning kit to help you prepare for the real SAT.
Seven Characteristics of Peak Performance In Football
1. You Feel Relaxed. To play your best, you should not be “psyched up”. Rather, research shows that the best state of arousal is just above normal, that is you should be relaxed but have a good feeling of energy.
2. You are Confident. You’re not hoping or wishing, but you’re expecting to succeed. You play without fear and you trust your training, intuition and instincts.
3. You are totally focused on the present moment with no awareness of time.
4. Everything feels easy and effortless to you. Your movements flow, the body and mind operate in unison. The game feels like it takes little to no effort.
5. Your movements are seemingly automatic. There is no interference from your emotions and thoughts.
6. You feel in perfect control. There is no doubt that what you think will happen actually does happen.
7. You’re aware that you’re having fun. Peak performance happens when you’re engaged, excited, and interested; it is not obtained when you are bored.
Net Cost Calculator
According to the Federal Government, as of October 29th, all colleges and universities must have installed on their websites a NET COST CALCULATOR for determining the real out of pocket expenses that families will have to pay for college expenses after all financial aid including athletic scholarships have been figured in.
This handy and much needed website tool will enable families to accurately predict ahead of time how much families will have to add to any financial aid.
Speak Your Mind